Without it no music: cognition, biology and evolution of musicality

Abstract

Musicality can be defined as a natural, spontaneously developing trait based on and constrained by biology and cognition. Music, by contrast, can be defined as a social and cultural construct based on that very musicality. One critical challenge is to delineate the constituent elements of musicality. What biological and cognitive mechanisms are essential for perceiving, appreciating and making music? Progress in understanding the evolution of music cognition depends upon adequate characterization of the constituent mechanisms of musicality and the extent to which they are present in non-human species. We argue for the importance of identifying these mechanisms and delineating their functions and developmental course, as well as suggesting effective means of studying them in human and non-human animals. It is virtually impossible to underpin the evolutionary role of musicality as a whole, but a multicomponent perspective on musicality that emphasizes its constituent capacities, development and neural cognitive specificity is an excellent starting point for a research programme aimed at illuminating the origins and evolution of musical behaviour as an autonomous trait.

Keywords: evolution of music; multicomponent view; music cognition; music perception; musicality.

Figure 1.

Neo-Darwinian perspective on the evolution of musicality. Diagrammatic representation of a hypothetical phylogenetic tree illustrating the Darwinian assumption that closely related species share similar traits. When two species (A and B) share a certain musical trait, one can infer that their CA also had that trait (referred to as a homologous trait). Filled circles represent a trait; open circles indicate the absence of that trait. (Online version in colour.)

Figure 2.

Convergent evolution of musicality. Diagrammatic representation of a hypothetical phylogenetic tree illustrating an analogous trait (homoplasy) in which a distant species (C compared to A) developed a musical trait that is lacking in a more closely related species (B compared to A). Filled circles represent a trait; open circles indicate the absence of that trait. (Online version in colour.)

Figure 3.

Multicomponent perspective on musicality. Diagrammatic representation of the evolution of the musicality phenotype. It illustrates the hypothesized contributions of several traits to musicality as a complex or multicomponent phenotype. Filled shapes represent the presence of a trait; open shapes indicate the absence of that trait. Shapes that are positioned on the tree are hypothesized dates of origin of that trait. (Online version in colour.)